Costa del Sol Hookup
by sanctum-c
Summary: A tragedy gives Aeris the chance to see the world.


Traveling the world was an aspiration at first – once Aeris learned the world was larger and more complex than the series of metal and glass rooms Hojo insisted on keeping her within. There was a vastness outside of the Shinra building in the form of Midgar around it (after learning what a city was in relation to her tiny world). There was a greater vastness beyond in the form of the Planet (and further out still; the solar system, the galaxy, the universe), the notion of what the name meant now clearer. Youth was the obstacle at first and Aeris contented her curiosity with books and magazines, television programs and films to catch glimpses and impressions of the larger world.

Later came the problem of money; Mom struggling to cope with the changes to jobs and income, to the increasing dangers within Midgar. A trip to Kalm might have been sufficiently satisfying but was a complexity too far. Aeris worked and saved, selling flowers for as much as she could get, saving where she could. Savings she regularly plundered for emergencies and unforeseen circumstances.

Until the fateful, unforeseen circumstance when Mom died. When Aeris was alone. A second mother lost and at age fourteen she had no one to turn to. Mom's family were distant and seemingly estranged or at least Aeris never met any of them. Her wife killed in the Wutai war – a fact Aeris knew only too well. The house, its picturesque location within Sector Five, passed to Aeris. Her home of seven years; how long Mom had owned the house unclear. Some agonising over how to proceed but hard to shake her immediate reaction.

Her house, but it was more Mom's home. She could part with it, let it pass to someone else. Too big for her to live in on her own. Aeris sold the house, sold the unexpectedly fertile land surrounding it. Not a quick process – and at times costly when she stayed in various hotels before the final sale completed. With the money from the house at age fifteen, she took her first steps outside of the city – and to Kalm.

Six months in Kalm and the town was familiar enough to contemplate moving on. A book she read encouraged staying no more than three days anywhere, but the time-frame felt too tight, too slim to truly experience a place. She would stay at each town she visited as long as needed.

Aeris arrived in Costa del Sol aged eighteen – a year ago now. Seasons did not seem to touch the town in the same way as other places on the Planet. It was admittedly far too cold to swim in the sea at midwinter, but the air was never chilly and people came to the town for different reasons through-out the year. A steady stream of newcomers and returning faces for Aeris to meet. Stories from elsewhere; places she would move onto in time. She knew of the Gold Saucer of course, but there was the mining towns of North Corel, the Corel Desert, Cosmo Canyon. And Nibelheim.

Tifa Lockhart was travelling like her, and - from careful omissions and a few telling responses once Aeris talked to her – similarly pressed into travelling thanks to a tragedy in her recent past. Sometime within the last year; after which she made her way from Cosmo Canyon, through the jungles of Gongaga to trace the mine-tracks up into the Corel mountains.

"All places I'd like to see." Aeris smiled.

"You should." Tifa sighed and sipped at her drink. Aeris gestured at her glass and after a pause Tifa nodded. Aeris ordered another round. "Not so good with words; not sure how even to describe them."

"I'm curious anyway, but I will see for myself at some point. I mean, I've seen pictures, but I doubt it's the same as being there." Some nagging sense of something at the back of her head. Something about Tifa. Detail fuzzed out by the drinks, the warmth and Tifa's proximity.

"How long have you been in Costa del Sol?"

"You looking for someone to show you around?" Aeris bit her lip. Tifa nodded. "I know where everything is. Where the good food is. You plan on staying long?"

A shrug. "I don't have much of a plan. I just wanted to get away and-" Tifa gestured futilely.

"Take time out?" Aeris offered.

"Something like that." A few more drinks. Conversations drifted onto the melancholic too easily; Tifa had lost her mother years before – a pain Aeris could relate to twice over. Tifa had lost her father recently; Aeris revealed she never knew hers. They changed tack after, keeping conversation lighter and Aeris finding reasons to touch Tifa's arm and feel the muscles there. "I should find a room."

Close to Midnight and the bar was growing quiet. Time to take a chance. "I don't mind sharing?" Tifa blinked slowly at her. "I mean, the offer's there. Not sure how much luck you'd have finding an empty room at this time of day, and I did promise to show you the sights."

Tifa wavered. "Okay." They made their way out the bar, Aeris guiding Tifa with little touches on her arm and shoulder if she was about to take the wrong route; Tifa never once pulling away from her touch. Unspoken tension in the air once they reached Aeris's room, Tifa dawdling while Aeris hastily plucked up discarded clothing from the floor and shoved her garments into the wardrobe.

"Sorry."

Tifa shook her head. "It's fine." She dropped her bag to the floor. "Do you want to have sex?" Tifa now took the initiative and Aeris was in no mood to stop her. She nodded; Tifa kissed her. Each kiss lead to another; each subsequent touch of their lips lead to a need to get to the bed, remove clothing and get closer.

* * *

The Planet's voice was clear in her head as Aeris woke. Used to it now; a familiar, comforting presence on the edge of her consciousness. Rarely coherent or clear. How had she coped without this while in Midgar? A seeming inextricable part of her and not something she wanted to lose by going back into a city for long. Easy to drift off into the distant murmur of voices at night and awake similarly in the morning.

The bright sun of Costa del Sol shone through a gap in the curtains. Still early but the sky was a brilliant blue and promised another glorious day. Aeris toyed with pulling the curtains closed and dozing for longer. But getting up would require effort and she was comfortable. She rolled over-

Someone else in the bed, her long, lustrous black hair strewn across her pillow. And like Aeris, not wearing a thing. Except for the bandage around her midsection. Oh. Oh, of course.

In the morning light it was clear something had marked Tifa somehow. The Planet never spoke in clear, unambiguous words, more impressions, notions and feelings. Tifa was thankfully not someone the Planet considered dangerous – nor was it about to start commenting on Aeris's love life. But something about Tifa worried it.

A detail needed to broach at some point. A potentially awkward conversation. Her thoughts for Tifa had previously not extended further than finding a reason to talk to her and see where things would go. She was now someone she would gladly see again. But something about her required further investigation – and likely more time spent with her. To find more of Tifa's secrets, Aeris would need to admit and reveal her own. It would make Tifa unique amongst her lovers. Aeris settled back onto her pillow and waited for Tifa to wake, ready to tell her not precisely everything, but more than she originally intended.


End file.
